Maybe it's a human compulsion, maybe it's just something to which journalists are prone when charged with wrapping up a disparate topic, but the drive to summarize is destined to fall short when it comes to analyzing the latest summer movie season, which comes to an end this weekend.

Trends? One stands out, and only one. The season was a bust, essentially, with an overall box office 10 percent lower than last year's admittedly impressive haul. July's results were especially abysmal, a wretched 30 percent below the previous July, the biggest year-to-year drop box-office analysts have ever seen.

Were things really that bad? Well, no. Unlike 2013's cratered summer at the movies, this year saw only one outright bomb ("Sin City: A Dame to Kill For"), and that late in the season. But neither were there any breakaway hits. Only one title, "Transformers: Age of Extinction," posted a $100 million opening weekend.

Industry apologists are quick to note that two films originally slated to hit theaters this summer were pushed back —"Fast & Furious 7," because star Paul Walker died, and Pixar's "The Good Dinosaur." Of course, that line of reasoning assumes those movies are going to be big hits, never a safe assumption to make with this industry, although the slim number of animation offerings throughout this year, not just over the summer, causes me to wonder if that genre has peaked.

Beyond that, the best way to look back at the summer of 2014 is via the tried-and-true bulleted format.

• It's hard to read much into the fact that, with few exceptions, the season's box-office champs were one and done, No. 1 on their first weekend and then pushed down the ladder a week later. That's bound to happen with big, new movies coming out each and every week. Space them out a little, and you just might give audiences a chance to discover a title or two.

• Those of us who can't wait for the superhero genre to run out of gas are going to have to continue waiting for the foreseeable future. But studios should be reminded that going back to the well once, twice or three times too often, i.e. Spider-Man, will inevitably result in diminished returns. "Guardians of the Galaxy" was the summer's most resounding hit because it was new. "Guardians of the Galaxy 4" will not do as well.

• While teenage boys will reliably flock to comic-book flicks as long as they're being made, teenage girls have different tastes in film. And they will turn out if a title is marketed to them. Witness the success of "The Fault in Our Stars." This point also pertains to women, seniors, adults in general, and anyone interested in anything besides superhero movies.

• Successful film marketing is a mysterious science, make no mistake, but Warner Bros. really blew it in a most simplistic fashion with the Tom Cruise vehicle "Edge of Tomorrow." The film reviewed well, and ultimately did fine box-office as well, but it debuted with a whimper. And the title was terrible. Yes, the original one, "All You Need is Kill," was of questionable taste, but it would also have been easy to remember.

• I'm increasingly concerned by the Hollywood braggadocio about how certain films, such as "Transformers," really clean up in China. I appreciate the argument that this is a global business, but you know what? It shouldn't be. China is a big, powerful country with a growing film industry. Let it make its own movies. I want to see movies made for me, not someone on the other side of the world.

• "Chef" was the summer's most successful indie, while "Boyhood" was the best reviewed. But neither made much of a ripple in the overall box office. The years of indie breakthroughs along the lines of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," released way back in 2002, may have been an anomaly.

• Finally, all those people who didn't go to the cineplex this summer didn't see trailers for the movies coming out this fall, making them less likely to travel to the cineplex over the coming months as well. Hollywood can't afford to write off one disappointing season. We need good movies to choose from 12 months out of the year.